Thank You, Bo Hume of American Airlines

Leigh McMullen ()

Thank You, Bo Hume of American Airlines

This article was supposed to be about my first real road trip with the iPad, and how it fared being unplugged and disconnected for a three-day journey. Instead that report goes on the back burner while I tell you another story.

Since 9/11 the airline industry has taken a lot of flack for things outside their control: long security lines, additional passenger screening, and any number of other complaints. In fact you usually only ever hear about an airline when something goes either absurdly or disastrously wrong.

Today was another day of travel for me, upgraded to first class, I enjoyed my lunch and marveled at how enjoyable a traveling companion my iPad is, though I was a bit frustrated by a few games that required network connections to work (the AppStore needs to force apps to note that if it’s the case).

Everything went smoothly, no complaints. Got home, unpacked, changed into beer drinkin’ clothes, and got a phone call from some guy named Bo Hume. Figuring it to be a telemarketer or something, I answered gruffly, “Yes.”

“Is this Leigh McMullen.” Bo asked. Sure sign of someone who doesn’t know me, calling to sell me something, I nearly hung up on him

“Yes.” I said flatly.

“Sir, this is Bo Hume from American Airlines, are you still in the airport?”

I answered that I wasn’t, now a little curious, I travel a lot (executive platinum), maybe they wanted to give me a voucher or something for making me sit in the middle seat in the back of the bus on my way out.

“Well, Sir, the reason I ask is that I found a notebook, or pad or something I think belongs to you.”

My iPad. I hadn’t even realized I’d lost it.

Now stop. How the hell often does it happen that someone calls you to report that you lost something you hadn’t even realized was gone.

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We make arrangements to meet, I rush back to the airport, Bo meets me outside, he’s exactly the kind of fella you’d want to have a beer with, even wearing a Dallas Cowboys hat, how could you not like the guy?

He gives me back my iPad, I say to him, “Bo, I really appreciate you getting this back to me, would you accept a small reward for your trouble.”

He smiles back, “No trouble, Sir, just thank you for flying American.”

No, Bo, thank you. Hopefully someone at American will see this, find some creative way to thank you and your whole team. You men and women keep the airplanes I rely on in the air and you do it 30,000 times a day, flawlessly.

Seriously, Thank you.

26 comments »

About the author

LeighMcMullen

Leigh McMullen leads the Advisory Services & Strategy practices for the professional services arm of one of the Big-Five firms. He has written several books that would cure any insomnia you might have, and is an avid Mac junkie.

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  • e.phemera

    lucky thing Jason Chen didn’t find it.

  • porkchop1234

    Hey Leigh could you send me Bo’s addy. I’m going to send him a a NFL cap of a real team the Indianapolis Colts
    haha:D

  • JeremyJ

    So, even though he didn’t recognize the device and it had a big stamped apple in the back he tried to contact you and return it and didn’t call around to tech blogs to sell it?

    These are the kind of things Americans and most people should be noted for and I’m really glad you wrote this piece. To be reminded that there are still good people out there, and I’m willing to guess lots and lots of them, is a great thing.

    Thanks for the article and GO BO! hehe

  • http://www.cultofmac.com Leigh McMullen

    @Jeremy, e.phermera, yeah I figured Gizmodo would be running headlines tomorrow, “Leigh McMullen’s iPad taken apart for the whole world to see…”

    @Porkchop: The colts are good, no argument here. (of course I can say that on account of you not even being in our conference let alone division).

  • http://www.carlcreasman.com Carl E. Creasman, Jr.

    Good thing you don’t work for Apple–hate to have you get fired for losing the iPad. I hope you plan on telling us how, exactly, you lost the iPad. :)

    Go Bo–thanks for being a real American who understands the concept of not taking something that doesn’t belong to you.

  • http://www.cultofmac.com Leigh McMullen

    @ Carl: I lost it the easiest way possible. I had changed seats to accomidate another passenger who wanted to sit with a friend. As we prepared to land, tucked it beside me, as I was sitting in the bulkhead, and once the seatbelt light went off, I jumped up to run three rows back and get my bag. Leaving my iPad on my seat.

    I was stone cold sober.

    Dumb.dumb.dumb. usually I’ve got so many freekin accessories, laptop, headphones, ipod, ipad, etc, it’s pretty easy to remember to pack everything up again. but sitting in the bulkhead you can’t have all that stuff.

  • http://www.cultofmac.com Leigh McMullen

    Thank you all, BTW for all the nice comments, I forwarded this article to AA’s PR folks… hopefully they’ll see that some of us still really appreciate the hard work folks like Bo do, and that it’s simply a level beyond what you get when you outsource jobs to people in far-away places.

  • Laurance

    I’ll pass this on to my cousin who works at AA in the area of employee training, and development. I know she’ll appreciate it!

  • MacGoo

    Freekin’ sweet. Seriously, I love it when people surprise you with their honesty and sincerity. Hopefully Bo is appreciated at his job – not sure how highly American values character, but it reflects well on them nonetheless. Methinks Bo deserves an iPad of his own…

  • Jeremy

    My mother was skiing a few years ago, and she smokes. She keeps everything in her cigarett case. Money, her drivers license, credit cards, and cash. She pulls it out on the lift to smoke on the way up.

    One day she dropped it in an area where it could not be collected. It fell 40 feet and then through 4 feet of powder. So, she canceled her cards, and got a new license.

    Over the summer, when all the snow had melted, she got a package in the mail. It was her cigarett case, with everything in it, including the $300 cash she had in there. Whoever mailed it to her, had to remove the money to find her address, so it wasn’t like he/she didn’t see it. There was no return address, so we have no clue who to thank.

    There are millions of good people in the world. Good to hear a story about one for a change :)

  • James

    A great story. Most people are only prepared to let others when they are unhappy and want to complain. This story not only highlights great service, but speaks volumes for the author’s character.

  • http://disco-bar.blogspot.com Hal

    @e.phemera: LOOOOL! :D

  • Bill

    Delta would have charged you a fee for leaving it behind.

  • Crag

    I love flying AA, good to hear!

  • Mass

    Very nice to read a story about someone doing the right thing for once. Seems like we hear less and less of these stories.

    Well done Bo.

  • vishnu

    Bo, you deserve not just appreciation, but respect as well. Funny thing is, for people like Bo, they don’t “think” about doing these things. It is part of their character and integrity map and they would do this a hundered times over. That’s the important takeaway for me. Integrity is so powerful that it can make the dried-in-the-sun frequent flyers (like Leigh) pause and write about it. No doubt, character wins over a person’s achievements anyday. Bo, thank you for reminding all of us that integrity and character are the real “things” we must possess, if we must possess anything.

  • imajoebob

    I used to feel that way about American. Always nice, always helpful, bending over baqckwards to make me happy. Until the day i tried to fly home on a rescheduled frequent flyer ticket. The guy on the phone was great, even waiving the chage fee because i called early enough for them to resell my original seat. Then I got to the airport and they told me to pound sand. They wouldn’t call the guy I talked to. They said cough up 1200 bucks or go away.

    It got worse when I got home and tried to talk to someone in the executive offices. This witch accused me of lying about the circumstances and refused to do anything but quote some preprinted form. i hung up and called back. When i got someone else they couldn’t talk to me because I’d been “blacklisted” by the first woman.

    Haven’t flown AA since (5 years).

  • chris

    How did he know who to call? Seat Number?

    Geese fot us who don’t get to be in First Class so often, thanks for rubbing it in.

  • Kevin

    Chris, I would assume that he looked at it and found contact info, as Leigh said he switched seats.

    As for what’s not to like about Bo? You said he was wearing a Cowboys cap. ‘Nuff said. :-)

  • Pete

    Aside from the mention of the cap, I’m really glad you wrote this Leigh. People like Bo need to be applauded for doing kind and decent deeds. We spend too much time everyday reading about the despicable things that go on in the world. It is really a breath of fresh air to at least hear about one good one.

    Thank you Leigh and Bo.

  • Jaye

    Leigh, please do not travel with young children…

  • Me

    Nice story. And the nicest part is the guy was just happy with himself, and was not expecting any recognition for it, just his own happy heart.
    There is good people out there, and these things need to be duly noted.
    We all need to be more Bo Hume, and just pay it forward.
    Thanks for sharing Leigh. ;-)

  • http://www.aa.com/social Brian

    Leigh, we thanked you on Twitter (@AAirwaves) as well, but we wanted to take one more opportunity to say Thanks for sharing this great story. We’re proud to say that Bo Hume is just one of the many many outstanding AA employees out there making a difference every day.

    We look forward to sharing the skies with you on many more travels. All the best!

    Brian, AA Social Community Manager

  • Mezzrow

    Thanks for reminding us that most people working for the airlines are good, conscientious folks who want to do a good job (TSA is a whole other case altogether). Airline COMPANIES are like any other big businesses, and I have no problem disliking them, but the employees understand they theirs is a service industry, much more than their CEO’s do. Nice of you to give the guy some public appreciation.

  • http://kellykay@gmail.com Kelly

    I like this site, very easy to read and use.

  • Farmboy

    Thanks for letting the world know that we are good people. Not all of us go around jumping on luggage! We do not think of ways to mess up travel plans. When you see us walking the terminal at the airport, remember, that we are the bottom rung of the American Airlines ladder. We do not make the rules, we are forced, right or wrong, to follow them. Thanks for recognizing something good in us. So many times we are all portrayed as thief’s and people who do not care. Nothing can be father from the truth. AA was once a great name and we, the employee’s, hope to to return to that stature soon!